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I’ve been inspired to share how I prepare sweet potatoes by this post here from my friend Evelyn over at “Become a Healthier You”. Check out that post because she gives some of the health benefits of sweet potatoes so I won’t go into it here. But I will mention that sweet potatoes are inexpensive, at least they are in my neck of the woods. So cheap and good for you is a always a winner in my book.

Sweet potato hummus (Photo credit: ilovemypit)

Now I’ve mentioned it before, that I really don’t like to cook. So whatever I cook has gotta be quick and easy with minimal preparation time. But I also like to do it cheap and healthy because I’ll admit, I still indulge in stuff that really is not good for you. So I incorporate the good healthy foods as much as I can and in order for me to do that, it can’t be too much trouble.

So here’s how I prepare my sweet potato treat:

1) Pre-heat your oven.

I bake the sweet potatoes at 400 degrees F, but of course everybody’s oven is different so find which temp works best for you. It probably does not even matter what temp you use. just be aware the lower the temp, the longer it will take them to cook. While you can bake just one sweet potato, I think it’s a waste of energy to do that. Plus I don’t like to have to cook everyday so I do 4 or more at one time.

While your waiting for the oven to heat, wash your sweet potatoes and dry them off.

2) Place them on a cookie sheet, baking pan or whatever shallow pan you have and put ’em in the oven.

3) Bake for approx 45 minutes to 1 hr.

Smaller sweet potatoes will of course cook faster than larger ones. You’ll know they are ready when they are soft. Sometimes, you’ll see the flesh on the outside of the potato. The softer they are the sweeter they’ll be too.

4) Take ’em out of the oven and let them cool down a bit.

See how easy that is?!

Once they are cool enough for you to handle, unless you have asbestos hands :-), peel the potatoes you are going to eat. You’ll find that the skin comes off very easy. That’s another way to tell if you’ve cooked them long enough. As you get more experience preparing sweet potatoes this way, you’ll be able to judge based on their size, how long you’ll need to bake them.

Now some of you may want to stop right there, plop ’em on a plate and start chowing down. But I like mine similar to the traditional sweet potato pie taste so let’s continue.

5) Place the peeled potato in the dish/bowl you are gonna eat out of and add the following ingredients to taste:

cinnamon

nutmeg

coconut oil

sweetener of choice ie honey, agave etc. Use something like these as we are trying to keep this healthy.

Mix it all up with a fork and have at it! Quick, easy, cheap and nutritious…well except for the bake time. Now that’s my kind of dish!